Two months later, MLB suspended four minor leaguers for violating the league\u2019s sports betting rules<\/a>. The league also issued a lifetime ban to San Diego Padres utility infielder Tucupita Marcano<\/a> \u2013 the first active player in a century to receive one due to gambling.<\/p>\n The following season, MLB placed Cleveland Guardians All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase and starting pitcher Luis Ortiz on indefinite leave<\/a> after suspicions emerged that they\u2019d rigged pitches to help gamblers win bets. In November 2025, both were federally indicted, and each has pleaded not guilty<\/a>.<\/p>\n But if you thought that MLB might ease up on its embrace of sports betting ahead of the 2026 season, you would be mistaken.<\/p>\n On March 19, 2026, MLB announced a new partnership with Polymarket<\/a>. The world\u2019s largest prediction market, Polymarket allows users to buy shares on the outcomes of future events \u2013 like betting \u2013 but with probabilities instead of odds<\/a>.<\/p>\n For most of baseball\u2019s history, formal affiliation with any form of gambling was inconceivable. That has changed under current MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred who, since the start of his tenure in 2015, has embraced gambling and prediction markets as they\u2019ve become legalized<\/a> in the U.S.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve researched and written about<\/a> the league\u2019s abrupt reversal from anti-gambling crusader to sports gambling partner, and how Manfred has justified this pivot to players, fans and the media.<\/p>\n The about-face is even more jarring when you consider the fact that the commissioner position itself was created in the wake of the 1919 \u201cBlack Sox\u201d scandal<\/a>.<\/p>\n A higher standard<\/p>\n During that infamous episode, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Eddie Cicotte, Chick Gandil and five of their teammates on the Chicago White Sox conspired to intentionally lose the World Series, forcing the sport to break from the gambling culture<\/a> that helped fuel its rise.<\/p>\n With baseball\u2019s integrity in doubt, the league chose an outsider \u2013 Illinois federal judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis<\/a> \u2013 as its first commissioner.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have got to have a higher standard of integrity and honesty in baseball than in any other walk of life,\u201d Landis said upon accepting the job<\/a>. \u201cAnd we are going to have it.\u201d <\/p>\n Thus began baseball\u2019s century of resisting \u2013 and punishing \u2013 any whiff of gambling. <\/p>\n In 1947, Landis\u2019 successor, Happy Chandler, suspended Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher<\/a>, in part, for his ties to gamblers<\/a>. <\/p>\n Former MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn speaks to reporters after announcing his decision to indefinitely suspend Detroit Tigers pitcher Denny McLain in 1970. Bowie Kuhn, who served as commissioner from 1969 to 1984, suspended All-Star pitcher Denny McLain<\/a> in 1970 for his involvement with bookmakers. He later banned baseball greats Willie Mays in 1979 and Mickey Mantle in 1983 for working as casino promoters, though commissioner Peter Ueberroth reinstated them in 1985<\/a>. <\/p>\n The most notorious post-Black Sox scandal involved all-time hits leader Pete Rose<\/a>. In 1989, Ueberroth launched an investigation after hearing that Rose had bet on games while managing the Cincinnati Reds.<\/p>\n A. Bartlett Giamatti, who became commissioner later that year, banned Rose from the sport for life in 1989 at the conclusion of the investigation. <\/p>\n The next two commissioners, Fay Vincent and Bud Selig, consistently denied Rose\u2019s appeals to be reinstated. In 2012, Selig described gambling<\/a> as \u201cevil,\u201d adding that it \u201ccreates doubt and destroys your sport.\u201d <\/p>\n From fantasy to reality<\/p>\n Manfred took the baton from Selig in 2015, just as daily fantasy sports<\/a> were becoming more popular.<\/p>\n Daily fantasy sports players draft rosters of athletes competing that day, stake money and win cash prizes based on the athletes\u2019 real-life performances. Sports leagues permitted daily fantasy sports, deeming them games of skill<\/a>, not chance. <\/p>\n Even though daily fantasy sports operated in a legal gray area<\/a>, Manfred inked a deal with DraftKings in April 2015 to make the fledgling brand MLB\u2019s \u201cOfficial Daily Fantasy Game.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe fantasy space,\u201d Manfred explained at the time, \u201cwas really, really important to [MLB] in terms of engaging young people.\u201d <\/p>\n Manfred took pains to distinguish these games from gambling, telling reporters in April 2015<\/a> that \u201cthere\u2019s a line in the law. And we understand that line very carefully.\u201d<\/p>\n But by the time the Supreme Court decided in 2018 to put the legalization of sports gambling in the hands of the states, Manfred described the league as a gambling authority<\/a> that was \u201cin a position to meaningfully engage and shape \u2026 what the new regulatory scheme looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n Protecting integrity to enable prosperity<\/p>\n Much of MLB\u2019s shift is in response to legal, technological and cultural forces beyond its control.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s a difference between accepting the legality of gambling and actively promoting it, whether that\u2019s through opening sportsbooks at stadiums like Wrigley Field<\/a> or saturating game broadcasts with gambling advertisements<\/a>. <\/p>\n Under Manfred, the league\u2019s messaging can be summed up as follows: Gambling is happening whether we like it or not. By going all in on gambling, we can at least control what shape it takes and better shield the sport from those with ill intent.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a bit convoluted, to say the least. But the scandals that have emerged have given Manfred opportunities to double down on the logic. <\/p>\n By giving exclusive data access to MGM Sportsbook<\/a>, for example, the league claims it can detect and monitor suspicious behavior.<\/p>\n Manfred has said that<\/a> baseball is \u201cin a better position to know what\u2019s going on today then we were in the old days when it was all illegal,\u201d a position he credits to the league\u2019s work with its gambling partners.<\/p>\n In this way, the league frames its gambling partnerships as protective \u2013 even as new scandals emerge.<\/p>\n Numbers games<\/p>\n Other trends have made fans and owners more receptive to gambling. <\/p>\n Baseball\u2019s embrace of gambling and prediction markets \u2013 with their spreads, parlays and share prices \u2013 is unfolding at a time when people are more comfortable with the integration of data and technology. Rhetoric scholar Michael Butterworth calls this \u201cthe statistical frame<\/a>\u201d \u2013 the idea that the world is increasingly understood through data, whether it\u2019s through polling results, blood oxygen levels and, yes, betting odds.<\/p>\n The game has also changed from the owners\u2019 box. Fewer teams are being steered by local, civic-minded businesspeople. In their place are international investment groups and private equity firms<\/a> that treat franchises as part of a broader asset portfolio. According to sports journalist Bruce Schoenfeld<\/a>, the sports industry has come to resemble \u201ca mutual fund that includes television and digital content, real estate, retail clothing, hospitality, catering and concessions.\u201d<\/p>\n For a sport increasingly focused on return on investment and growth, a reunion with gambling was a natural next step for baseball. And it\u2019s been a boon for the bottom line<\/a>.<\/p>\n Advertising for Caesars Sportsbook at Rate Field, home of the Chicago White Sox, during a 2025 game. Baseball\u2019s \u2018best interests\u2019<\/p>\n In conjunction with the Polymarket announcement<\/a>, Manfred also signed a memorandum of understanding with the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, reiterating that \u201cprotecting the integrity of the game on the field is our top priority.\u201d<\/p>\n But what about the protection of the athletes themselves? <\/p>\n Baseball players<\/a> have opened up about the threats they\u2019ve been subjected to since gambling\u2019s legalization. <\/p>\n \u201cYou hear it all, man,\u201d Arizona Diamondbacks reliever Paul Sewald told USA Today. \u201cYou blow a save, you don\u2019t come through, you get it all. \u2026 \u2018You cost me all of this money. (Expletive) you. (Expletive) your family. I\u2019m going to kill you and then kill your family.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Manfred has said that these developments are \u201ca matter of concern to us that we take really seriously<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n It\u2019s possible that MLB will return to an anti-gambling stance in the face of these mounting threats<\/a>. But as annual revenues for sports betting soar toward US$20 billion<\/a>, that\u2019s a tough bet to make.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MLB\u2019s past few seasons have been plagued by a spate of gambling scandals. In April 2024, authorities arrested…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-580763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Black-and-white](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/file-20260401-71-3yrmtk.jpg\")
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\n Patrick Gorski\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n